Patreon Short 18 - Tritonia's Team (Part 2/2) (Patreon)

Tritonia's Team - Part 2

by Zmeydros

(edited by Tiliquain and Journeymanic)

The battery-powered emergency light up on the wall above the fridge clicked on.

Charlemagne sucked her teeth looking at the locked bulkhead door. "And that's what I get for getting caught up in conversation."

Pepper went up to the door. "Can't we just open it?"

I shook my head. "I heard a drop lock."

"We call it Fail Secure," Charlemagne corrected.

"A better name is Fail, Starve to Death." I groaned in frustration. "Can't believe I'm locked in for the second time today!"

"Wait, how did you get out the first time?" Pepper asked.

"The armory door was secured by a second gen Anysys, so I just hotwired the solenoid." I chuckled. "Such a terrible design."

"Can you open this one?" Charlemagne asked. 

I shook my head. "This is a Hastel-Voss thirty seven seventy, one of the best high security interlocks ever made, and I don't have my tools."

"Is it a time constraint, like it would take a very long time without your tools, or is it actually impossible?" Charlemagne asked.

"It's impossible. I'd need a full electronics kit complete with a high-end oscilloscope to maybe bypass this lock. If this was part of a job, I'd use a few breaching torches. Hastell-Voss made the best digital locks in the industry until Medeco ran them out of business."

"Damn it!" Charlemagne stomped her foot.

"Like, I know fail secure, but usually it's to keep people out of things, not trap them," Pepper said. "Why lock people in here?"

"There are three levels of redundancy to the power distribution system. If all three have gone out, the most likely cause is a hull breach. The quarters we're in were originally for scientists, the least expendable personnel and the ones least likely to be able to deal with a breach. Locking them in ensures they will survive until a rescue team can reach them," Charlemagne said.

"But wouldn't they suffocate?" My heart started to race. "Are we going to suffocate?"

"Movies overdramatize suffocation in enclosed spaces. This cylinder is sixty feet long. Its volume is around two hundred thousand liters. We only breathe a hundred liters of air an hour, so all three of us only breathe three hundred liters of air an hour. That means we have over six hundred hours worth of oxygen. And before you ask," Charlemagne opened the storage unit under the other set of bunks and pulled out a rebreather. "We can use these to scrub carbon dioxide out of the air if we need to. There's a carbon dioxide sensor in the fire alarm that will warn us to grab these." She pointed up at the fire alarm, it was modern and its light was still blinking amber and green alternately as it ran off of its own battery. I think the amber flashes were to complain that the power was out.

Pepper put an arm over my shoulders. "Feeling better now?"

"Yes! No suffocating for us!" I beamed.

With my whole body tingling from a desire for more of Pepper's touch, I reached around her back, grabbed her side, and pulled her against me. It was really helping with my anxiety. Being trapped in this room was bringing back memories from when I was trapped at the bottom of the sea in the ADS 3000.

Charlemagne looked at us with a raised eyebrow and then cleared her throat. "We need to stay focused."

We let go of each other and put our hands by our sides. The damage had been done, however, I hadn't had sex since my check up with Kirkii yesterday and I was feeling clingy because I was scared. My eyes darted down to Pepper's crotch. What did it feel like to fuck someone else's lusty treasure cave?

"We're going to have better survivability if we can communicate with the rest of the team. Is there any way we can send Morse code over the intercom using one of our PIKL batteries?" Charlemagne asked.

"No, the intercom system is fully digital and using the battery would probably just burn out diodes or otherwise screw up the boards. And even if it would work, the batteries for your PIKL units would be incredibly dangerous to try and work with. Working on high power electronics without the correct equipment is a recipe for lethal shocks or electrical explosions..." My eyes darted to the old intercom system that had been left in place. "We could use that--" I pointed at the emergency light. "---to send Morse over the old intercom system, though."

"But how would we see what we were doing if we cannibalized the emergency light?" Charlemagne asked.

"Could we use those little displays on your PIKL devices?" I asked.

Pepper shook her head, "They're too small. I don't think they'd be enough to see fine work. But your glow would probably be enough, well, if more of your skin was exposed than just your hands." Pepper immediately put her hand over her mouth. The first time she'd mentioned me taking my clothes off to be a flashlight, we'd not had a date planned and it had been a joke. Now it held a lot more weight.

Charlemagne scoffed. "Officer Mint! This is not the--" She paused and looked at me, then at the emergency light, then at the old intercom system. "Actually, I don't have a better idea."

"Your last name is Mint? You're Pepper Mint?" I laughed despite the situation.

Pepper sighed and looked down.

Forcing myself to stop laughing, I said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. It just caught me by surprise."

Smiling softly, Pepper said, "It's okay, I'm glad it made you laugh. I wish I could find my parents' twisted sense of humor funny. Would have made things a lot more fun growing up."

"I think I have something that'll cheer you up," I said as I started unbuttoning my sailor top.

Charlemagne rolled her eyes. "Save us the strip tease, please just take it off."

"Oh, right, sorry." I unbuttoned the rest of the buttons and pulled my top off.

Pepper looked at my breasts with lust in her gaze. She nearly licked her lips, but then her eyes darted over to Charlemagne and she put on a professional face.

Charlemagne glanced at my chest a few times seemingly trying to decide whether to look away from me or just look at my tits and satisfy her curiosity so we could move on.

I said, "Just look at them, please. It'll be far less awkward that way."

Charlemagne took a long look while her expression remained neutral. "You look very...healthy," she said with her eyes smiling just a tiny bit.

"Thanks!" I reached down to take off my pants feeling like I was going to catch fire with how much I was blushing.

"Stop!" Charlemagne held up a hand. "Just the upper body should suffice." Her cheeks had just the tiniest bit of pink.

Pepper had given up trying to hide her interest and was looking at my upper half all she wanted, which was a lot.

To break the uncomfortable social tension, I climbed up on the counter next to the refrigerator and grabbed the emergency light. It felt bizarre to just have my breasts out for all to see while I did this. Bizarre in a good way. The emergency light was heavy, but bracing my elbows on the top of the fridge gave me enough leverage to pop it out of the fixture that held it on the wall. Then I pushed it across the top of the fridge saying, "Charlemagne, can you grab this?"

"Sure!" She was so damn tall and strong that she made the emergency light look small and light. She had no trouble bringing it over to the dining table and setting it down.

Pepper and I sat on either side of one of the table's corners, close enough that our right knees were touching. 

I asked Charlemagne, "Are there any tools in here?"

"Yeah, every crew quarters has a basic set," Charlemagne went over to the cabinet under the sink, pulled out a small tool bag, and brought it to the table.

Pepper and Charlemagne watched as I took off the metal housing and exposed the innards of the light. Most of the inside was a big lead acid battery, but on top of that there was an old circuit board that turned it on when the power went out. I needed some parts off that board.

Pepper grabbed the manual shut off for the emergency light. "You ready to glow?"

"Yeah!" I said concentrating on getting my upper half to glow firefly yellow while my nipples glowed cyan. I tried turning my nipples off, but I didn't have that fine of control.

I carefully disconnected the battery and went to work on the board. My glowing upper half provided enough light for me to identify components for the most part, but not being able to fully distinguish colors made things a lot more challenging. To read the color bands on resistors, I had to hold them up to the PIKL screens, which had a white backlight. During this process, Charlemagne split her attention between the door and what I was doing. She asked me many well-informed questions, possibly trying to add knowledge about electronics to her repertoire. 

Pepper was being bad, so very bad! Possibly without even realizing it. The whole time I worked, she idly stroked and caressed my thigh with her right hand. My dicks had started fighting my attempts to contain them and I had no idea how to tell her to stop without getting Charlemagne annoyed at her.

It all came to a head when I was concentrating on holding wires together so I could put a wire nut on them. In that brief moment, I forgot about holding my pricks inside me.

My twin cocks slid down the sides of my pant legs as I gasped and shivered. My glowing flickered as this happened, getting brighter and then going back to my normal intensity. A couple seconds later, it happened again. Having felt movement, Pepper's curious hand reached down and pressed against my right prehensile length causing it to undulate under her fingers. I flickered more dramatically, squeaking in delight.

Pepper was so surprised by my prick's movement that the whites of her eyes were easily visible in the dim light.

Charlemagne narrowed her eyes at me, "Are you okay?"

My voice cracked as I said, "Yep!"

Pepper quickly withdrew her hand, but I was done for. I wanted to grab her and stuff her full of cock. I could smell how turned on she was now that she'd recovered from the shock of my shaft moving on its own. I wondered how she'd react when she discovered I had two of them.

"Can you please stop blinking, then?" Charlemagne asked.

I shivered as my lush feminine valley got so wet that I was starting to moisten the crotch of my sailor pants. My body flashed again. "My body doesn't seem to be listening to me."

"Huh, maybe it's a side effect of forcing yourself to glow so long?" Charlemagne raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, maybe," I lied.

"Are we ready to start sending Morse code?" Charlemagne asked.

"Just about." I worked on making sure to tape any areas that were in danger of shorting out or shocking the person using my crazy device.

Charlemagne ordered Pepper to keep an eye on the door and then worked on composing the messages she was going to send on a legal pad we'd found in the cupboard.

"Okay! It's all done," I said.

"Just one more minute." Charlemagne was hurriedly transcribing her message into Morse.

I blinked over and over again as Pepper and I shared shy glances, both of us wanting to talk about what she'd felt in my pants.

"Please try to stop flickering, it's making it hard to concentrate," Charlemagne said, not looking up from her work.

I tried pressing my legs together thinking that a more prissy sitting position would help, but that brought my dicks into contact through my pant legs. When I moved my legs back apart, I blinked three times in a row while stifling a moan.

"Persephone!" Charlemagne thumped the table with her fist. "Just thirty seconds without blinking, it's all I ask."

"I'll try to concentrate on something other than...I mean, I'll try to stop." I said as I closed my eyes and calmed my mind. Unfortunately, that just led to me imagining Pepper bending over for me.

"Okay, I get the feeling you know why you're blinking and you're not telling me, out with it." Charlemagne was pointing her pencil at me accusingly.

"I..." I bit my lip with my sharp pointy teeth nearly drawing blood. There was no way I could say it in front of Charlemagne. The embarrassment was like a cinder block hanging around my neck. I looked at Pepper expectantly hoping she'd take the hint.

"She's extremely aroused, ma'am," Pepper said.

I nearly died from embarrassment as I waited for Charlemagne to respond.

"Well, that does fit with Kirkii's report on her libido." Charlemagne went back to writing. "Sorry for yelling at you."

I kept flickering.

A minute later, Charlemagne handed me the piece of paper and brought my device to the door. "After we get this sent out, we're going to have to do something about your blinking so I don't lose my mind."

"Like what?" I asked while flickering every time I took a step. My pricks were rubbing against my thighs and my pant legs.

"I'm willing to take one for the team, ma'am, whatever Persephone needs." Pepper laughed.

"Officer Mint, I'd like you to show more decorum." Charlemagne set the device down on top of a storage locker that was just inside the door and below the old intercom.

"Sorry, ma'am," Pepper said.

"Good, now I want you pointing your PIKL at the door while we get this message sent out," Charlemagne said.

"Yes, ma'am!" Pepper stood and pointed herself at the door.

I hooked everything up and sent both of Charlemagne's messages three times spacing them out by about five minutes. One of them very succinctly detailed our situation and where we were in a way that only the other humans on the base would pick up on. Then it asked for a sitrep. The other gave hints for how we patched into the old intercom system so they could communicate with us.

After that, waiting was painful while we sat at the table. Every time I blinked, I thought I was bringing Charlemagne closer to a migraine. Pepper kept her arm over my shoulders letting me lean against her. Charlemagne seemed annoyed at first by Pepper's lack of decorum, but she didn't say anything and was pleased to find it calmed me some and reduced my flickering to about half the frequency. Being near Pepper also made it easy to smell how pent up she was, which kept me throbbing in my pants. 

We were so relieved when a message finally came back that we all relaxed our shoulders and sat further back in our chairs.

Charlemagne transcribed the message and then read it to us. "No one else has died, we are all holed up in the infirmary awaiting the strike team which will be here in three hours. There are at least two more hostiles hiding in the base. Before the power went out, the Librarian reported that our flooding of her section has made it impassable to the enemy. We believe the power was cut so that the enemy could repair the pumps and get the water out, but repairs are going to be difficult because Alphonse used a drone and a grenade to blow up the pump motors before we retreated. We disabled the infirmary door so the enemy cannot lock us in. We do not believe it is safe to continue the sweep as the enemy is at a steep advantage in the dark. Unless something changes, we will contact you in two hours. We will leave this channel open, but we cannot guarantee it is secure."

"That's great news!" Pepper cheered.

Charlemagne smiled, "Yes, yes it is."

"Are you worried that they'll fix the pumps before the strike team arrives?" I asked.

Charlemagne shook her head. "When we flooded that section, ancient bulkheads closed it all off, and those bulkheads are near-impossible to cut through no matter one's technology level. I think pumping out the water so the bulkheads open again would be faster, but that will take hours. This deep in the ocean, getting the water back out is much harder than getting it in. All we had to do to get it in was just open a few valves. Whoever built the repository was very smart. They automated many of their safety and security measures without connecting them to the Librarian, planning for the possibility that the Librarian could get hacked."

"Why are there so many modern repairs to the bulkheads and stuff if they built things so well?" I asked.

"This place is ten thousand years old and over time, the repair mechanisms stopped working. The Librarian blames heretics for it, the same word she's using for the current attackers."

"Wait, do you think they're the same thing?" Pepper asked. "Like, the same enemy from thousands of years ago?"

"It could just be one of the words she uses for hostiles that attack The Repository. Could even be a bad translation from her native language into ours." Charlemagne shrugged. "We can't know for sure unless we ask the Librarian directly."

Pepper shifted in her seat and just that little bit of touching against my side got me to flash three times in a row.

"That's it!" Charlemagne pointed at each of us as she spoke. "You two are going to iron out your sexual tension right here, right now."

"Are you upset with me? I'm sorry I have such a high libido." I frowned feeling very self-conscious.

"It's not your fault you have a high libido, it's a documented medical condition. Stop feeling sorry for yourself." She looked me in the eye to show she was dead serious. "And start working to deal with the problem before it becomes even more of a distraction."

"Are you ordering us to have sex?" Pepper asked.

Charlemagne slapped the table. "If that's what it takes, do it! I can't have you distracting each other, and me, for the next three hours. I'll guard the door and keep my helmet on."

"You're probably going to still hear a lot of stuff, I'm not exactly quiet," Pepper said.

"Officer Mint, if I have to remind you about decorum one more time, I'm going to put you out the airlock." Charlemagne glared. "I'm an adult and know what sex entails, everyone is loud. That's why noisy sex is one of the main complaints in poorly soundproofed hotels." She got up, grabbed the chair she was sitting on, and set it in front of the bulkhead door before sitting in it.

Pepper and I looked at each other, grinning. Then Pepper quickly removed her combat armor and set it neatly on one of the lower bunks before turning to face me.

I stepped toward her to kiss her, but she started undoing my sailor pants the moment I was within arm's reach saying, "Sorry, but I gotta see what's going on down there."

Squirming at the fact she was about to see both of my pricks, I told myself that she already knew I was a herm and that I shouldn't be embarrassed. It kinda worked and I didn't try to hide myself when she pulled my pants down to reveal my cyan-glowing phalluses.

"T-they glow, they move, and there's two of them!?" Pepper said aloud, voice full of awe. It seemed she was trying to convince herself what she was seeing was actually real.

Charlemagne looked back at us, "Don't try to make me l--" Her eyes went wide. "Persephone, I had no idea you had such unique anatomy! No other hybrid has ever had that happen." Her face was full of wonder. She did seem like a scientist at heart, an explorer, as much as she was a military commander.

"Didn't Kirkii's report include those details?" I asked.

"No, that sort of info is anonymized and not included in personnel reports unless there are extenuating circumstances," Charlemagne said, still staring at my cocks. "How much dexterity do they have?"

Blushing and flickering, I said, "I can use tools with them if I want to."

"Fascinating...Carry on. I shouldn't have delayed you." Charlemagne turned back toward the front.

Reaching toward my crotch with both hands, Pepper took one of my cocks into each hand and gasped as I curled them in her grip. "They're so strong!"

I screeched as I preed a bit and wiggled them in her grip. It felt so fucking good to have someone else grab them like this.

"You really like that, huh?" She chuckled.

"Oh Yes! Oh gods yes!" I said.

She stroked harder and pressed her clothed front against me. "You being this hard must mean you really want me," she teased.

I bit her neck on instinct and she gasped feeling the threat of my pointy teeth and then pressed up into my love bite. "Okay, this is new. Never been this wet." 

She pulled away and undid her belt before unfastening her pants and pulling them down with her panties. Strings of her juices connected her panties to her sopping cleft. It was one of the hottest things I'd ever seen. It made me want to shove inside her to see just how ready she was for me.

Grabbing my left hand, she shoved it up under her bra and then started making out with me. Her pointer and middle finger on her right hand reached under my balls and stroked across my valley of ecstasy. Then she kissed away my moans while unbuttoning her uniform with her free hand. Her breasts were soft with strong pectoral muscles under them making them perky. I loved the mixture of softness and hardness on her. Reaching into myself with one of my pricks, I wrapped it around her fingers. She threw off her uniform and then pressed her breasts against mine.

I couldn't take it, I had to satisfy my curiosity, so I slid my left prick into her. She groaned in delight and clenched around my welcome invasion. Taking her fingers out of me, she grabbed my ass and pulled my hips more firmly against hers, grinding against me. When I shoved my other prick into her, I had it spiral up the first, stirring her up as much as possible.

She came then and there, pressed up against me, whimpering and gasping, absolutely thrilled.

The odd part of her being this wet is that there was very little friction and I wasn't all that close to cumming. Remembering how hard and fast my boyfriends could go when they had me bent over, I waited till she'd stopped cumming to pull out and nudge her toward the table saying, "Bend over!"

"Fuck, Persephone!" She grabbed one of her nipples looking at me with lust in her eyes. Then she bent over the table and tilted her ass upwards. "Get back in there!"

I grabbed her hips and started ramming myself into her, my shafts a helix of throbbing greatness. There was so much texture to fucking her. I could feel each twist as it entered. It must have been hitting her clit a lot because she was squealing as I bred her. The coasters on the table clinked against each other as we simulated an earthquake. I'd never worked this hard at sex, but that somehow made it even better!

She came again, but I still wanted more and somehow held on. That's when Charlemagne said, "Come on! This isn't a sex marathon!"

I stopped thrusting briefly. "I'm almost there."

"If you want it to go faster, help us out, she's a herm, you know," Pepper said, probably thinking that would shut Charlemagne up.

"You think I'm a prude, don't you?" Charlemagne stood up, walked over to my back end and put her hand on my tail. "I have a libido. I'm just more in control of it than either of you." She pushed my tail between my legs so that it was pressing up against my sensitive mound, then she put her knee behind it and applied pressure.

I looked back at her, moaning and in complete disbelief.

"Stop gawking and start thrusting, you libidinous shark," Charlemagne said. "This better stop your seizure-strobing."

When I moved back to thrust, the pressure Charlemagne was putting on my tail caused my plump nethers to slide against the underside of it. I shuddered, pleasure from both places at once, stuck between two women I was attracted to. Charlemagne seemed amused by my enjoyment of her simple gesture and had this perfect confident smile.

Then I thrust forward into Pepper, my twisted shafts making a wave inside her. Back and forth, mashing my flesh muffin against my tail and then stretching Pepper with my dicks, my whole body was engulfed in bliss. I yelped, moaned, and gasped as both sexes worked their way to orgasm. It was so fast, so violent that my body just kinda moved on its own and my pace increased until I was practically vibrating between them.

Letting out a guttural yell, I slammed forward one last time and came so hard that I dug my fingernails into Pepper's ass while feeling the pressure shooting up my shafts. I gushed inside her like water flooding a submarine. I came so much, so fast that my jizz was streaming down our thighs. I ground so hard against her that I rubbed myself feverishly against my tail.

Pepper went off again, this time, her legs shook and she started to lose her footing. She made a sound like, "HAAAIIIIEEEEEEE!!!" that I'd never heard a human make before.

My slippery slot canyon blindsided me with an orgasm that made my entire body freeze up. I stopped breathing, existing. The intensity of my bioluminescence got so great that I saw it reflect off the sides of the refrigerator handles. 

When it was all over, I slumped against Pepper's back, smooshing my tits between us.

"Those were some big fireworks," Charlemagne said pulling her knee away. "And you've not blinking! Thank the universe!"

I just looked back at her lazily and gave her a thumbs up.

She smirked. "That was it for insubordinate behavior. You two better be nuns until we're safe again. Understood?"

We nodded weakly.

Charlemagne went to a cabinet next to the shower and pulled out a couple washcloths and a towel. Then she opened a cabinet next to the sink and pulled out a ten gallon jug. She wet the washcloths and handed them to us saying, "Get cleaned up and dressed. Well, not you, Persephone, I want your upper half exposed for lighting...Would you be more comfortable in an improvised bikini top or something?" Charlemagne's eyes remained on the door as she spoke.

"Nah, you two have seen everything already," I said.

"Fair enough." Charlemagne walked over to the chair and sat back down

Pepper looked back at me and gave me a big smile of approval as she squeezed my cocks inside her and rolled her hips. I had to stifle a moan.

Pepper insisted that we clean each other and her sensuous touches to every inch of my body made me feel like I was a goddess. When it was her turn to get cleaned off, I did the same to her and we ended up pressed up against each other in a sensuous hug while my right arm was draped over her shoulder, hand still holding the towel I'd just dried her off with.

She was maybe two inches shorter than me, I'd gained some height when I'd transformed and I was pretty sure I'd started off shorter than her. The feeling of her breasts against mine, her toned belly against my slightly more padded one, and her nice round ass in my hands was wonderful. She was kneading my ass, pressing up against me, reminiscing with me through touch about what we'd just done.

Without turning to look behind herself, Charlemagne snapped her fingers. "Clothes on, chop chop!"

"Yes, ma'am," we said in unison and then broke up our hug.

I put on my sailor pants and she put on her whole uniform. My nipples stood firmly at attention as we brought chairs up to the front and sat next to Charlemagne. It was starting to get chilly.

Pepper asked, "Where are you from?"

"Jacksonville, until my second year of middle school when my parents both got jobs at Disney World and we moved to Orlando," I replied.

"Did you like Florida?" Charlemagne asked.

"No, I loathed it. Nothing ever dries, so everything gets mildew and mold, and the gap between rich and poor is insane. What started my career as a thief was seeing the difference between the rich suburbs of Orlando and the poorly-maintained apartment squalor that amusement park workers, like my parents, lived in." My teeth chattered as I spoke.

"Heat hasn't run in over an hour now and the water outside is about forty degrees," Charlemagne said. "Maybe you should cover up. We'll just have to deal with a lower light level."

"I say this with the utmost decorum and respect," Pepper said. "The pool toys are hard enough to see when things are well lit. I'd feel safer if we didn't cover her up and I have an idea that should work for a while."

"Let's hear your idea," Charlemagne said.

"I get a couple blankets off the bunks and have her sit in my lap while wrapping blankets around us leaving her front exposed. I'd be able to help her stay warm and we'd have light." Pepper spoke carefully, trying to sound logical rather than romantic.

"You'd have to keep your body armor off, so you'd be less protected if the enemy--" Charlemagne chuckled and shook her head. "You know what? Go for it. It's my fault for not keeping a flashlight on my person when I knew there might be more power outages."

Pepper and I got the blankets and I settled into her lap. I had to clamp down on an errant thought about how nice it would have been if she had a cock and I could just sit there with it inside me. 

It didn't help me stay calm when she unbuttoned her uniform and took off her bra so her bare front was against my back. It did keep me warmer, however. The only reason I didn't get horny enough to start strobing again was the deep satisfaction from our sexual romp.

"Where are you from?" I asked Pepper.

"Iowa until I joined the navy," she said.

"Why did you join the navy?"

"I loved diving, but I was sick of diving in lakes and wanted to see the ocean. And my waitress wages weren't enough to put me in college or help me move."

I nodded. "All good reasons."

"Yeah, I wish I'd had more options, but I like being a soldier, so I guess everything worked out." She set her chin on my shoulder.

We changed positions several times as we waited for the strike team. We stood, we sat on the floor, we even laid on our sides while Pepper kept her PIKL aimed at the door. I'd never been held for such a long stretch of time and was feeling incredibly happy. Charlemagne didn't seem to mind as long as we stayed attentive. There was so much I wanted to ask Pepper about her life and hobbies, but I was exhausted and my voice was getting hoarse from speaking loud enough to be heard clearly when everyone was wearing ear protection.

We got a report from the rest of Charlemagne's team that nothing had changed and they were just going to wait until the strike team arrived in an hour.

About a half hour before the strike team was supposed to arrive, the lights came back on, the drop lock unlatched, and the airlock started to cycle.

Charlemagne leapt toward the door before I'd even fully realized what was happening. Pepper helped me off her lap and worked to get back into her combat gear as fast as possible.

A chill ran down my spine as I wondered why we hadn't heard anything dock with the base. When the submarine docked there was a lot of metal on metal noises, things clicking together. And the strike team wouldn't just swim to the airlock this deep in the ocean or they'd be fucked over the moment they entered our single atmosphere of pressure. In this fearful split-second, I remembered the pointer in my pocket and pulled it out.

Charlemagne signaled for us to get ready. Once we were in position, me in the center and Persephone to the side ready to shoot through the gap, Charlemagne opened the door with one hand while holding her laser rifle in the other.

In the blink of an eye, a pool toy slid through the gap in the door and grabbed Pepper by the neck with its left hand and aimed its pointer finger at the same gap in her armor where Abrams had been injured. Her strangled scream of surprise was the worst sound I'd ever heard. A hiss came from the pool toy's finger.

A fiery anger flooded my entire body. I pulled on the end of the pointer and it shot forward piercing the pool toy's shoulder with a loud "thok." This got it to release its grip on Pepper's throat and try to pull the pointer out with both hands. It didn't stay confused for long, because Charlemagne blew it full of holes.

Pepper was struggling to breathe and she had a bleeding hole in her side. Movement outside the door stopped me from going to her. I pressed the end of the pointer against the wall and it recoiled back into the handle so hard that it flew right out of my hand. Charlemagne tried to slam the door closed, but a pool toy was fighting her, trying to make a wider gap.

"FUCK! Fuck, FUCK, Fuck, FUCK!" I yelled as I tried to find where the pointer had gone.

"I can't hold it!" Charlemagne's feet started sliding across the floor. My heart threatened to burst in my chest. Then my foot kicked something on the floor and I dove down to grab the pointer.

Suddenly the door was flung open and Charlemagne was sent tumbling backwards. Four pool toys were lined up to come in, but I turned them into shish-kabobs, sending the pointer straight through their torsos. They hadn't been expecting the door to swing so far open and had been caught completely off guard.

Bright flashes and loud bangs filled the room as both Pepper and Charlemagne blew chunks out of them with their lasers until all that remained of them was tattered black fabric dangling from the extended pointer.

I felt like a badass...I'd beaten them all while topless!

When I retracted the pointer this time, I braced myself and it didn't go flying. There weren't any more pool toys, no odd shadows outside the door. I ran over to Pepper, who was still coughing, wheezing, and bleeding. I grabbed my sailor top and pressed it against her wound trying to apply pressure. She hissed in pain.

Charlemagne saw the swelling on Pepper's throat and grabbed an ice pack from the freezer. Putting it on Pepper's throat, she said. "Breathe softly and steadily, coughing will only exacerbate your bleeding."

Pepper nodded and tried to calm down. She was fidgeting in pain. I took her hand and she squeezed mine hard. Charlemagne dug into one of the cabinets behind me and came back with a first aid kit. After she got out the trauma sealant, she pulled my sailor top away and grabbed a towel. After sopping up the blood, she filled Pepper's wound with the stuff.

"Won't the bleeding just keep going unless we let it coagulate?" I asked.

"This isn't normal stuff, this is made from the sap of a very useful NPO," Charlemagne said. "I'm more worried about the damage to her trachea."

Pepper was struggling to breathe and kicking, acting like she was being strangled, even though she was breathing slower and steadier. 

Charlemagne got up and used the modern intercom while keeping her eyes, and her laser, pointed at the corridor. "I need an intubation kit ASAP! Watch for pool toys along the way."

"We're on it, madam. ETA a touch over five minutes," Gillon replied.

Each of Pepper's breaths seemed like a bigger fight than the last. A few minutes later, sick gurgling sounds were being interrupted by gasps for air. Pepper was grabbing my hand so hard it hurt. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched her eyes go from wide and terrified to glassy and calm. "Please don't die!" I kept saying along with things like, "You have to live so we can have dinner together!"

She was barely moving by the time Gillon and Abrams arrived with an intubation kit. Abrams guarded the door while Gillon came in and sat down next to Pepper. 

I kept hold of Pepper's hand, but stayed out of the way as Charlemagne and Gillon rolled Pepper onto her back and scrambled to get the kit assembled and ready to go.

"Her grip's weakening! You gotta hurry!" I begged them not caring that I was still topless.

Gillon slid the tube in as Charlemagne tilted Pepper's head back. Then he started using the bulb attached to the tube to help her breathe. Her hand fell out of mine and I picked it back up yelling at her, "No! You have to live!"

Her hand twitched and I said, "Yes! That's it! Stay with us!"

Gillon kept pumping the bulb while Charlemagne and I watched anxiously. Little by little, Pepper's grip got stronger, and soon she was actually looking at us, looking at the tube and bulb sticking out of her mouth. 

"That's it!" I kissed her cheek. "Stay with me, babe."

Then she took her first breath on her own through the tube, then another, and another. We all cheered as she was back to breathing normally, albeit with a slight gurgle.

After that, they got her on a gurney and took her to the infirmary. That's when I finally put my top back on and started to relax. For the next few hours, I stayed at her side knowing, out of everyone there, that I was her closest emotional connection.

During that time, the strike team came and killed the last three remaining pool toys, finding that they'd rebuilt the pumps and were waiting for the path to the Librarian to open up.

Tsubumi was stable and looking a lot less pale. Both she and Pepper were going to live.

As I was eating an MRE at Pepper's bedside, Alphonse handed me a grey work shirt they'd found for me to wear. I faced away as I changed out of my bloody sailor top and then started chatting with him. At first, we just went over all the crazy shit that had gone down that day, but when he thought it was safe, he leaned in and whispered in my ear. "During all that waiting for the strike team, I got bored and figured out a way to breach their system and call home. But I didn't do it because of what you said. All I want you to know is that we can send messages out. I'm willing to wait a while, but not forever. Nod if you understand."

I nodded.

"Good, now, laugh as if I told you a long-winded dirty joke, I think Septimus is watching us."

I laughed and kicked at the floor while Alphonse chuckled. No longer whispering, he said, "You kicked a lot of ass, girl! I think they're gonna want you on their team. They already asked me and I said I'd have to ask you. I think we should say, 'yes,' Don't you?"

"Yeah! It's way better than sitting around and twiddling our thumbs waiting for some nightmarish creatures to cut us down," I said.

Charlemagne trotted over to us and said, "Couldn't help but overhear, you both want to join my team?"

"Yeah!" we said.

"You understand that it's a lot of responsibility and that it may cost your your lives?" Charlemagne asked.

"Uhh, we all nearly died today. I'm less worried about the risks of joining than I am worried about the risks of not joining. If I hadn't helped today, we'd all be dead," I explained.

Nodding, Charlemagne said, "You were an indispensable asset. Welcome to the team."

"I know the risks, count me in," Alphonse said.

"Does that mean we get to wear the cool uniforms now?" I asked.

"Tell you what, if you fill out all the paperwork without complaint, I'll requisition your uniforms that very day. If you make it more painful than it needs to be, I'll take my time doing so." Charlemagne's confident grin meant she knew she had us by the balls. Neither of us wanted to be wearing sailor uniforms.

"Deal!" I said, reaching out to take Charlemagne's hand.

As we shook hands, I saw movement at Pepper's side. When I looked toward her, I saw her giving me two thumbs up.

Tritonia, still slung on Gillon's back, said, "Welcome to the team!"

THE END

I’d like to acknowledge my first $20 patron, Navajo Demar, for helping make all this possible. Thank you! Thanks to all my other patrons as well. Every one of you rocks!